Focusing on fizz - Champagne this New Year's

New Year is just a day away so this week we are talking fizz with a focus on Champagne. Making Champagne or fine sparkling wine is not cheap given the complexity of the production process. Certainly a few euro is added for prestige purposes but this also happens with the best Californian fizz and with Cava, writes Leslie Williams.

A quick brush-up on the process: first ferment your grapes into still wine, either in stainless steel or in old neutral oak (as happens at Krug and Bollinger).

Next comes the blending of the different ferments from different plots from the same year or with the addition of wines from previous years for Non-Vintage (NV).